How To Survive Oral Dissertation Defense

Some of the tips below are from my mentor/chair who advised me before I defended in May 2013, and some are from my observations once it was all over. Depending on your topic, field of study, your mileage may vary.

1. Remember that your committee wants you to succeed:

This is usually true. Your committee would not let you get to the stage of a public defense if they did not know that you would pass. They have seen drafts and given comments on your project, so they know it and know whether it is ready. They will ask you hard questions, but, in most cases, they won’t try to trap you in unanswerable questions.

2. Know that you know what you know:

By the time you get to the defense, you will have been living with your project for years. You will have thought about it, written about it, discussed it, and worried about it on some level, pretty much constantly, for a long time. You know it inside and out.

3. Know when to shut up:

My wife, an attorney, told me this a few days before the defense, and I took it to heart. If you are nervous or aren’t sure of an answer, one of the worst things you can do is keep rambling, hoping to say the right things. You are more likely to start floundering or wander onto a topic that you are not prepared to discuss. Instead, shut up and see if they have follow-up questions.

4. Be aware that your committee is performing as well:

Your committee is performing for the audience and for each other just as much as you are. Keep this in mind and it gets a little less intimidating.

5. Keep it simple:

When summarizing your project, simply tell them what you did. Keep it simple. Here is my project. Here is the question I posed. Here is the research I did. (A faculty member gave this advice the day before)

6. Engage the question honestly:

When I present at conferences, I sometimes adhere to Robert McNamara’s advice in Errol Morris’s documentary Fog of War: “Don’t answer the question they asked. Answer the question you wish they had asked.” Works for politicians and sometimes at conferences, but not in your defense. Your committee members are experts in their field(s), and have been through their own defenses as well as those of others, and they will smell any diversionary tactics. You are better off trying to engage the question as asked, and get as close as possible to an answer. Which leads us to the next two points.

7. Don’t be afraid to say “I don’t know”

There is no shame in admitting you don’t know how to answer a question. A flat out “I don’t know” probably won’t work, but a stab at the question preceded by “I don’t know exactly how to answer that, but…” might work wonders. I often found myself towards the end of an answer that I was not sure I had answered to the questioner’s satisfaction, and I would stop and say “I don’t know if that answered your question…” which invited clarification or guidance (this goes with #3 – know when to shut up).

8. You can’t know everything — don’t expect to:

You are the expert in the field of your dissertation, and it’s possible you know more about certain aspects of it than your committee, but you can’t possibly know everything. If questioning goes beyond your topic, admit that you are not familiar with whatever new topic has come up.

9. Get a good night’s sleep:

Cramming won’t do you any good. Worrying won’t do you any good. Sleep, if you can get it, might do you good.

10. Have fun:

A faculty member told me this the day before, but it makes sense in light of some of these other points. You will pass. This is your chance to show that you are the expert your committee suspects you are, and there is no reason not to try to have fun with it. It is your big moment, after all.

Dr. M. Phan

You shouldn't worry about the oral defense. You have written the dissertation and you are the one that knows the most about your subject. Your mentor and committee want you to succeed and you just need to put together a presentation that shows you know your stuff and can answer specific questions about your methodology, why what you did is important to scholarly literature and leadership, and how your dissertation will add to the body of knowledge. You will be given about 20 minutes to present your research study and then you committee will ask you questions related to doctoral study and your research. Remember, they have read the dissertation and they know what you have written, so the question might be more general in nature. Your mentor should provide you with some typical questions that are asked on oral defenses, so you can at least have some practice. You should just develop your presentation, relax and deliver the information, and answer the questions and things will turn out just fine. Best of luck on the presentation and gaining dean's approval of your dissertation.Dr. W. Dean

Leading up to the orals, your committee has given you some feedback and from that you get a hint what each member is interested in asking. Present your orals as if you are before a new set of audience, do not assume they heard your message before. This way, your presentation will be more complete rather than sounding like vol5 of a 5 chapters book. Your slides should have talking notes. Don't try to memorize them. At the outset I told my committee that I may be reading from the slides/notes sometime and sometime simply paraphrasing the content, depending on the tempo of the presentation. Ensure that your mentor helps you by asking committee to defer all questions until you are done presenting, otherwise you will loose your train of thoughts and momentum.

You have your own style, use that in that 30-min presentation. I told almost 40-minutes to present my and another 30 minutes to answer questions. When responding to questions, do not apologize about mistakes if possible and reasonable. They will not spot everything deficiencies (if any), just resubmit dissertation. based on the committee's feedback. You probable know the same day if you pass or must redo. Do not be nervous, over confident, be respectful, steady, and relax, people can detect it. Do it well, we are waiting on the shore for your arrival as Dr. Dr. Ng

My best recommendation is to complete your PowerPoint presentation at least one week before the defense. Time yourself and tape yourself as you present each slide. Rehearsing will help you tap in the right timing. If you have 20 slides, you should have at least 1 slide per minute, but if your committee allows (like mine did) 30 minutes you will have space to breathe.

I tell you, I rehearsed the full nine yards. I got my husband to pretend he was a committee member, we both logged in freeconferencecall.com, he was on his cell phone and I was in front of my computer. He had the power point slides in front of him, and I did my oral defense just as if he were my committee. The first try I consumed the 30 minutes by slide 14. The second time 30 minutes and slide 19. The third time was the charm, and in 30 minutes, I finished the 21 slides and had little seconds to spare.

Another thing I did was to be closely communicated with my mentor. He recommended me to do the presentation as if we were chatting (and so I did). He also advised to allocate sufficient time to explain the methodology, conclusions, results, significance to scholarship and implications. He provided me with ideas of questions the committee might be interested to ask, and I prepared index cards classified by topics. I made sure I had the right talking points, while balancing the content of the slides. It went excellent! I know you will do great, as well. Dr. Thompson

Dissertation/Thesis Oral Defense Questions

Your thesis/dissertation committee chair is usually the moderator for your defense, and he/she willexplain the rules on procedure and protocol. During the defense, the committee could ask forfurther elaboration on the research methods employed in the study; question your findings,conclusions and contributions; and/or ask you to elaborate on the relevance of your study to yourprofession and society at large. Specific to your study, you need to be ready to discuss: why and howyou selected the problem to investigate; the instrument for data collection you chose; the basicassumptions of your study; the theoretical and conceptual framework; the methodology you chose;the way your data were analyzed; and how you solved your problem, reached your conclusions,answered your research questions, and obtained your purpose. In this way, you and your examinerscan reach more extensive insights into the area that you researched.Some general questions that are often asked at a defense include:1. If you were to do it all over again, what changes would you make?2. What surprises did you find in your study?3. What was the most challenging aspect of your research?4. What specific aspects of your findings can be taken to practice?5. How generalizable is your study?6. What is the most important contribution your study can make to your profession or society?7. Is there an alternative interpretation of your findings?8. How would a policy maker be able to utilize your findings?9. Will your research change current thinking in the field? If so how?10. How will you communicate your work to other scholars in your field?11. What will you do, personally, with the findings to make a difference?12. What advice would you give a student who is starting the dissertation process andconsidering using the methodology you used?13. How did your course work at the university prepare you for your dissertation work?14. What is your next research project?